RESOURCES

Effective Grammar Editing Made Easy

(FEB 2007) — Working with grammars can be challenging, which is why LumenVox provides a tool called the
Grammar Editor to help developers validate and test their grammars.

This tool, distributed with the Speech Tuner, was updated in the February release of our software —
it now includes more descriptive and verbose error messages.

Using the Grammar Editor during development can save you time and frustration as it will allow you to quickly ensure that your grammar
is working the way you intend it to.

One of the key steps in troubleshooting recognition problems is to verify that a grammar is valid and that utterances are parsing with
the intended semantic intepretation.

You can start the Grammar Editor by running GrammarEditor.exe from the bin directory inside of the Speech Tuner
installation directory (by default C:\Program Files\LumenVox\Speech Tuner\).

Testing Phrases With the Editor

One of the Grammar Editor's most useful features is the ability to parse sentences and see how they are interpreted by the Speech
Engine using the active grammar.

You would use this feature to check that the semantic interpretation is being returned the way that you expect, and that the grammar
is designed properly.

To parse a sentence, simply enter one or more words into the Sentence input box at the top of the Editor and press
Parse. This input represents what a user might say.

In the results frame at the bottom of the Editor, you will now see how the Engine parsed the sentence, using the current grammar.
You will see the number of possible interpretations, along with the parse tree and any semantic interpretation.

You can use this information to ensure the grammar can properly support the type of input you expect from users, and to ensure that
your grammar is returning the sort of semantic interpretation that your application expects.

Further Your Skills With Training

LumenVox offers a variety of training classes designed to help both new and veteran speech developers hone their skills.

All classes are taught by instructors who have extensive experience using our software, with backgrounds in computer telephony,
application development, and speech recognition.

How to Download the Latest Release

If you would like information on downloading the latest release of the LumenVox Speech Engine or the Speech Tuner, please
contact
us.

Validating Grammars

You can use the Grammar Editor to validate grammars, meaning to ensure that an SRGS
grammar (either ABNF or grXML) is valid.

Then, load a grammar by selecting File > Open and navigating to the grammar. Once loaded, select
Edit > Validate to check the grammar for errors.

If the grammar validates, the bottom frame of the Editor will display a success message; otherwise it will provide an error, along with the
row and column at which the error was detected. You can edit your grammar, validate it again, and see if you have corrected the error.

Upcoming Events

You can meet with LumenVox at the following up coming industry events:

SpeechTek West: Held in San Francisco Feb. 21–23. We will be exhibiting in booth #402. LumenVox experts will
also be speaking at various sessions throughout the show.

VON: Held in San Jose, CA, March 19–22. We will be at the Digium Partner Pavillion.